Saturday, July 01, 2006

The $400 lunch break

After Thursday night's loss of $500, I took my lunch break on Friday to try and win it back. I signed up with Casino Elegance (100% $100 bonus, wagering requirements (WR) of 15x = $3000), which has a slightly different kind of stickiness to its bonus. You can play with it, and lose it, and like regular stickies, you can't withdraw it. However, if you still have it, it sits in your account and isn't removed with your withdrawal.

This didn't change the way I played -- $25 a hand until I got to $300 (at the $775 WR level), then $50 a hand until I built it up to my target of $600 (which I reached at the $1325 WR level). Then down to $2 a hand, 3 hands at a time, which I did until I had about $400 in WR left. I was at $521, and had fallen pretty far off my target, so I started to use the D'Alembert system. It seemed to be going nowhere, so when I had $100 in WR left and was at $550, I jumped back to $25 per hand, one hand at a time. And lost. And won, and lost, and lost. At $500, I jumped up to a $50 hand, and lost.

At $450, I play my final hand, betting $50 (you can tell this is gonna be good), and am dealt 3-3; the dealer shows a 2. Proper strategy says to split, so I do. The first hand is 3-8, which I double, and get a 7 for 18. The second hand I get a 5, then a K for 18. I've now got $150 on the table and only $300 in my account. The dealer turns over his hole card, which is a 9, giving him 11, and I nearly come unglued... but he draws a 6, for 17. I win $150 (plus my bets back), have hit my $600, and make my withdrawal.

So, for the last 24 hours, I'm only down $100, and I've still got $100 in the account to try and win with. Today's project: bet it all on one hand, and withdraw any winnings.